"...The head of military intelligence said today that terrorists have used the last two months of relative quiet to gather weapons that could cause the worst terror attacks Israel ever has known.

"Israel is paying a heavy price to give Abu Mazen a chance," said Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash to questioners on an Israeli Arab web site. He added that terrorists can blow up the negotiations in less than 48 hours. Farkash revealed that terrorists have exploited the cease-fire announced by the Palestinian Authority to dig tunnels rigged with explosives and build rockets in Samaria..."

A small bomb attached to a car exploded in Jerusalem this morning, but failed to injure anyone. Secuity forces do not yet know the motive for the attack.

The bomb went off before sunrise in the Ramot neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, damaging three other cars nearby. Ramot is adjacent to several of the capital's Arab neighborhoods, but police are still exploring the possibility that the attack may have been criminally motivated.

Also this morning, IDF troops caught three PA Arabs near Kibbutz Kfar Aza trying to break through the fence between Gaza and pre-1967 Israel. The IDF troops opened fire when the infiltrators tried to run, wounding one of them. The wounded man was taken to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon to be treated before questioning, but the two other men escaped into PA-controlled territory.

Arabs opened fire at an IDF vehicle near the Gush Katif town of N'vei Dekalim today. No damage or injuries were reported.

Last night, two wanted terrorists were arrested in Hevron and Silwad, near Ramallah. Hatam Salim, arrested in Hevron, was found to have a private arsenal hidden in his home. The weapons cache included pipe bombs, pistol cartridges, night vision equipment and bullets for M-16, Kalashnikov, and Uzi machine guns.

Monday, Arabs from the Arab village of Marda threw rocks at passing Jewish vehicles traveling toward the city of Ariel on the Trans-Samaria highway. Arabs also threw a firebomb at an IDF patrol between the towns of Talmon and Dolev in the eastern Binyamin region. No injuries were reported in any of the attacks.

The head of military intelligence said today that terrorists have used the last two months of relative quiet to gather weapons that could cause the worst terror attacks Israel ever has known.

"Israel is paying a heavy price to give Abu Mazen a chance," said Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash to questioners on an Israeli Arab web site. He added that terrorists can blow up the negotiations in less than 48 hours. Farkash revealed that terrorists have exploited the cease-fire announced by the Palestinian Authority to dig tunnels rigged with explosives and build rockets in Samaria.

(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz late Monday night agreed to turn over control of Jericho to the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday and Tulkarm early next week. Kalkilya, near Kfar Saba, will be the next city in line to become full responsibility of the PA, according to Mofaz.

The Defense Minister met for several hours with PA Interior Minister Nasser Yousef at a hotel in Herzilya, north of Tel Aviv.

Giving the PA control of Jericho has been delayed because of Israeli demands for guarantees of safety for travelers around the city on the main highway between the Dead Sea, east of Jerusalem, and the Bet She'an and Tiberias to the north. Under the new agreement, Israel will control the road, but the PA can begin training police in the city. -----------------------------------------------

The Palestinian Authority is expected to receive security control of Jericho as early as Wednesday, with Tulkarm due to be handed over early next week, security officials told The Jerusalem Post at a meeting between Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian Authority Interior Minister Nasser Youssef on Monday night.

According to officials, Mofaz and Youssef are also discussing the transfer of Kalkilya, making it the third city on the list to be handed over.

The meeting in Herzliya was scheduled to iron out the differences that arose in meetings last week between Israeli and Palestinian security officials, which led to a breakdown in talks and prevented the handover from being implemented.

It was decided at the meeting that Israel will retain control of highway 90 and the District Coordinating Office checkpoint outside Jericho will remain. Palestinians will be allowed to train policemen in Jericho.

Members of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine who are incarcerated in Jericho will remain behind bars.

The transfer of cities to Palestinian security control has been on the agenda ever since the first meeting between Mofaz and Palestinian security chief Muhammad Dahlan on January 29.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian resident of Kalkilya, Naim Hable, who was freed in the release of 500 Palestinian security prisoners on February 21, was caught along with two others with 102 M-16 assault rifle bullets, a knife and stolen property at a checkpoint outside Kalkilya on Monday.

Judea and Samaria police, conducting routine operations, flagged down a car for inspection and discovered the bullets and other items. The three occupants of the car were arrested.

In the northern Jordan Valley near the village Marji Najah, Judea and Samaria police arrested four Palestinians after discovering stolen tank parts in their truck. Police officials believe the tank parts were stolen from one of the IDF bases in the area. The suspects were handed over to security officials for questioning.

Soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian after he and another Palestinian, attempted to evade arrest near Ailer close to Tulkarm. The soldiers, who were conducting routine operations in the area, spotted them in a car and signaled the driver to stop. He ignored the soldiers and drove away.

Later he stopped the car and both occupants attempted to bolt on foot. With the pair ignoring their calls to stop, soldiers fired warning shots in the air and then aimed the Palestinians' legs. One Palestinian was lightly wounded and evacuated by Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics. The second Palestinian succeeded in fleeing the area.

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MIM: Note that an Israeli minister who is the son of the slain tourism minister Ze'evi stated that the PA's brazen (but expected) announcement that they will release his father's murderers is " is one of the things with which the PA is testing us". "Thinking that if it works good, and if not, not".

This 'threat' to release killers of Jews after Israel has 'agreed' to turn over Jericho to PA anarchy, is more proof of the MO of PA (Paid Assassins) and shows that appeasement and concessions on the part of Israel will only lead to more attacks (both at home and abroad), and unleashes the same effect as blood does to a shark.

Israel plans to hand over control of the Jordan Valley city of Jericho to the PA on Wednesday. Abu Mazen says he'll release the murderers of Rehavam Ze'evi; Sharon says Israel will re-arrest them.

The issues that blocked the handover of Jericho until now remain in dispute, and will be negotiated at a later date. So agreed Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz and the PA's Nasser Yusuf. The disputed issues include Israeli checkpoints around the city and control of the village of Ouja, just north of Jericho. At present, Israel will remain in most of these areas.

The fate of the nearly 20 terrorists wanted by Israel who have found refuge in Jericho, including those responsible for the murder of Minister Rehavam Ze'evi in November 2001, is now overshadowing the other matters. Israel has agreed that most of them may be released, on condition that they also be disarmed. However, Abu Mazen said today that he also plans to release Ahmed Saadat and Fuad Shubaki. Saadat is the secretary-general of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and is responsible for the murder of Ze'evi, and Shubaki headed the Karin-A weapons ship acquisition in early 2002.

Official Israel responded immediately. "If Saadat and Shubaki are released," the Prime Minister's Bureau announced, "we will arrest them with lightning speed."

Abu Mazen told Reuters today that by agreement with Israel, as soon as Israel leaves Jericho, the two can be released. Israeli officials said this was not true, and that the agreement actually calls for the two to remain in prison under joint American-British supervision.

Palmach Ze'evi, son of the slain minister, told Arutz-7 today that he is confident that Prime Minister Sharon, a close friend of Gandhi, will not allow the murderer to be freed. "This is one of these things by which the PA is testing us," Palmach said, "thinking that if it works, good, and if not, not. But I can tell you that it won't work. Even within this madness [of concessions] that we see, there are still some red lines. Sharon won't let it happen." However, the younger Ze'evi said, "We see what kind of guy we're dealing with. Abu Mazen is supposedly committed to the agreements, and yet even at this early stage he makes announcements in violation of them."

Defense Minister Mofaz said today, "If the PA dares to free Minister Ze'evi's murderers, Israel will put its hand on them faster than they think." He said that Israel's rejection of such a release has been made perfectly clear to the PA negotiators.

Israel's forces are scheduled to be withdrawn from in and around Jericho tomorrow, except for the checkpoints in dispute that are stationed on the critical Jordan Valley highway. The highway leads from Jerusalem to the Galilee and Golan.

The highway also passes through Ouja, a village just north of Jericho, although a bypass road has been built. When the Oslo War started, Arabs from Ouja set up roadblocks and attacked Jewish travelers on the highway on a regular basis. Other attempts have taken place there as well, such as in August 2001 when terrorists shot at an Israeli motorist, failing to injure him. Several months earlier, bus passenger Sgt. Tal Gordon, 19, was shot and killed by ambushing terrorists on the Jericho bypass road.

Mofaz and Yusuf, who is responsible for Internal Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, also agreed yesterday that the city of Tul Karem, east of Netanya, would be handed over early next week. They further determined that negotiations for the transfer of control over Kalkilye, east of Raanana, would begin as soon as possible.

(IsraelNN.com) Israel signed over control of Jericho to the Palestinian Authority (PA) less than an hour ago. The handover was delayed for several hours while IDF officers requested from commanders permission to sign the protocol orders. PA and IDF officers will coordinate patrols in the area.

The IDF removed the roadblock on the road between Jericho and Ramallah, but Jericho's mayor criticized the PA for agreeing to take over security for the city while Israel still mans checkpoints near the city.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has agreed to turn over to the PA control of the Samarian city of Tulkarm next week, with Kalkilya next in line. Tulkarm is adjacent to the 1967 border and is about seven miles from Netanya on Israel's Mediterranean coast. Kalkilya also borders the 1967 border and is adjacent to Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv.

(IsraelNN.com) The current 'calm' is not a reality and is only a "rest break" during which its terrorists are stockpiling new weapons that have not yet been used against Israelis, according to a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

Abu Musav, commander of the northern Gaza Al-Aqsa terror squad, added that it only is a matter of days before the current clam ends. He also criticized Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) for not providing promised employment.

For what has been described as "the first time in living memory," a Jewish house of worship in Switzerland has been set afire. Less than a kilometer away, a Jewish-owned shop was also set alight.

Both attacks, which local police said were connected, occurred last night in the southern Swiss city of Lugano. Elio Bollag, the president of Lugano's Jewish community, described the incidents as "anti-Semitic." No one was hurt in either attack, but the synagogue's library was almost totally destroyed in the firebombing.

It was reported in the name of Jewish leaders in Switzerland that this was the first time in living memory that a Swiss synagogue has been attacked in this manner. Previous anti-Semitic vandalism has included only graffiti daubed on walls.

Lugano apparently has a strong Arab population. The Neue Zurcher Zeitung reported just yesterday that tourism officials in the city have published a brochure in Arabic omitting references to aspects of European life that could offend Muslims. A comparison of the Italian, French or German versions of the Lugano tourist board's brochure with the Arabic-language text reveals that in the latter, pictures of churches are missing. In addition, references to the local variety of pork-based salami have been replaced with cheeses from the Italian-speaking region.

In June 2001, Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum, 71, of Bnei Brak was murdered in Zurich. The murderer, who rendered 11 children orphans, was never caught.

Switzerland's Jewish population has remained steady at approximately 20,000 for several decades.

MIM: The headlines in the Neue Zurcher Zeitung reveal a terrorism denial on the part of Swiss authorities who reacted to what they said were "deliberate arson attacks" on two Lugano synagogues and a Jewish owned cloting business with "Whether this has to do with an act of vandalism or if there is an anti semitic motive behind the attacks needs to be determined in the course of further investigation. "

Canadian Jews born in Jerusalem are having their passports recalled in order to erase the word "Israel" from beside the name of the Jewish State's capital.

The government's move follows an application to Canada's Supreme Court by B'nai Brith of Canada against the government's new policy regarding its passports and Jerusalem. Canada's new position is that "Israel" not be specificed as the country of birth for its citizens who were born in Jerusalem.

The court suit was filed on behalf of a 17-year-old Torontonian, who objected to the ban against noting Israel as his country of birth on his passport. The boy's lawyer argued that the new policy discriminated against his client, as many other citizens had received passports with such a classification.

The latest development is that scores of Canadian Jews have been told by Canadian Passport Office officials that they must surrender their passports showing "Jerusalem, Israel" as their birthplace.

"It appears that the Government has begun a concerted campaign to recall the passports as a direct result of the legal action now before the courts," said Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of B'nai Brith Canada. Instead, he said, "the appropriate ‘clean-up' initiative would be to [allow his passport to read 'Israel'], thus putting the complainant in the same position as the many other Canadians already holding valid passports showing Jerusalem, Israel."

In a similar move last September, a US court found that American consular offices need not register the birthplace of a Jerusalem-born American citizen as "Jerusalem, Israel," but merely as "Jerusalem."